Golf chiefs playing down talk of Open for Portrush

Royal Portrush is being talked about as a potential venue for the 2019 Open Championship

The R&A insist it remains “some distance” from being able to stage the Open Championship in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1951.

Rumours of the Open returning to Royal Portrush have been circulating for some time, with reports yesterday claiming a deal had been done for 2019, 68 years after Max Faulkner won the only Open staged outside England and Scotland.

However, the R&A’s response on Twitter labelled such reports as “Portrush rumours” and a statement released read: “As part of our commitment to examine the feasibility of staging an Open Championship at Portrush, the R&A continues to discuss this at a conceptual level with Royal Portrush Golf Club and the Northern Ireland Executive.

“Discussions have been positive but we are still some distance from being in a position to take the Open to Northern Ireland.”

The R&A denied reports last summer that the Open was set to be held at Portrush in 2018. R&A chief executive Peter Dawson admitted that it is “a fantastic golf course,” but concerns remain over the infrastructure required to stage a major and Dawson feels the current nine-course Open rota is “about right”.

Portrush has not hosted a major championship since the 1951 Open, but the Irish Open drew massive crowds there in 2012 and the likes of major champions Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell have been lobbying on Portrush’s behalf.

It has also been suggested that the R&A would hasten its decision after Portrush emerged as a surprise contender to stage the US PGA Championship.

The PGA of America is studying the impact of holding the event outside the United States, with the earliest possible date in 2020. It had been thought that Asia would be the most likely venue, but PGA of America president Ted Bishop said in November last year that he was interested in Portrush.

“Royal Portrush would be a great first international major,” Bishop said.

“I think given the powerful effect that Irish golfers have on the professional game today, that might be a good place to start.”

Portrush native McDowell, whose brother works at the club, said at the time: “It’s always been a dream of mine to play the Open there but the US PGA would do nicely.

“It’s very bizarre and an amazing statement. I couldn’t believe it and read it three times. I had heard the US PGA was looking at going global, which is a very positive step forward, but I was expecting Asia, not the north coast of Ireland.

“Even if it never comes to fruition it’s a great boost to be mentioned in that breath. My brother Gary is on the greenkeeping staff there and he will have a spring in his step.”

Despite the R&A’s stance, it is understood negotiations with Portrush are very well advanced and tourism minister Arlene Foster told Press Association Sport: “Obviously if the R&A does make a decision to put Royal Portrush on the rota it will be a tremendous thing for Northern Ireland and a very positive sign we are moving confidently on and I think we want to send that message out.”

Asked if the potential for disorder in mid-July - the height of marching season - could be an issue, Foster noted the success of staging the Giro d’Italia cycling race in Northern Ireland over the last three days.

“If they are looking on this week and they are seeing the way the entire community has taken to the Giro d’Italia I think sport transcends a lot of what may be seen as our difficulties,” she added.

Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Matt Baggott added: “I think these events actually help to focus people on what’s good, rather than some of the things that are negative.

“Let’s not forget that in July the vast, vast majority of parades pass off perfectly peacefully - so we have got to get things in perspective.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Belfast Newsletter provides news, events and sport features from the Belfast area. For the best up to date information relating to Belfast and the surrounding areas visit us at Belfast Newsletter regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Belfast Newsletter requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.